Kmcalpin

No Mbulu or Ferguson in today's team and, as Steelboy has pointed out in another thread, no Maguire or Turnbull either. 1-1 at Kelty at HT. Jordan Armstrong equalised after the Pars opened the scoring. Our old pal, Kallum Higginbotham is playing.

I don't see the connection - sorry. I like our players to be physically strong enough to put in hard challenges and powerful enough to resist them from an opponent; but at all times to play fair. That doesn't preclude them from being fast or skillful. Cedric Kipre was my kind of player as he was of much our support apparently. What we witnessed from MacGregor on Sunday was entirely different behaviour; underhanded, dirty, unfair and apparently bullying a youngster. As Richie points out he has previous for this. I hope you can see the difference.

Really? What went on? So, no coverage of the MacGregor / Hartley incident from the BBC - what a surprise! As for media coverage I very rarely watch Sportscene apart from internet highlights. I listen to Sportsound as little as possible. Media bias from the commercial outfits is understandable as their first priority is keeping their owners and shareholders happy and that means maximising audiences. No problem with that. However I do object to a public body like the BBC showing such blatant bias. Our TV licence money is every bit as good as that from fans of ther gruesome twosome and Aberdeen.

Did the TV pundits make an issue of it? Did they say something along the lines of "MacGregor could be in trouble if the Compliance Officer sees it"

ATS? I know he's short on fitness but thought he'd be getting some game time.

Agree now that I too have seen it from behind. However as TV and radio have ignored it, the Compliance Officer won't want to know. TV and Radio pundits act as judge and jury.

He has bèen out injured (training mishap), but should be ok now.

I can't speak for Superward, but if you care to trawl back over this and and the matchday threads you'll pick up many of these "little things". Ok maybe none were gamechangers in themselves, but could have influenced the course of the game. If several more Rangers players had been yellow carded, as they should have been, then that would have influenced their game and desire to compete. MacGregor's elbow on Hartley is an interesting one. On that I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he simply missed it. Referees are only human and in a fast paced game, they'll inevitably make mistakes when making instant decisions. Some incidents will be missed, I get that. However in the case of Thomson yesterday it was his judgement that was consistently inconsistent. He clearly saw what took place in many instances but his decision making was very suspect. To take one minor example. Early in the game he ticked off Carson for timewasting. Yes, the latter was timewasting but I didn't think it was that excessive and he did it just the once. However throughout the second half we had MacGregor blatantly timewasting on several occasions yet Thomson didn't speak to him. Why?

I think we can make the top 6 this season, but we need to get the central defence sorted to do so. Lack of pace there could be critical.

Yes he is what he is and we have to work with that. The way he's playing just now he should be the first name on the midfield teamsheet and that will dictate who plays alongside him. To balance out his weaknesses we need a strong defensive midfielder to shield the central defenders and act as his minder. Set pieces are his thing but he does need to improve his conssitencies at corners. He could be an important part of the team this year.

What exactly happened? From my vantage point in the POD I saw a melee in the goalmouth and a Well player (Hartley?) on the ground. It seemed to me that a Rangers player then stamped on him or kicked him. A bit of a scuffle then ensued.

Don't know about being dishonest but he certainly seems to be biased. Totally inconsistent today. He only spoke to one player today for time wasting (Carson in the first half) but let MacGregor off with far worse in the second. There certainly seemed to be 2 different sets of rules in operation. Penalised Main for dipping his head slightly and getting a kick in the head from a player whose boot was at least chest height. Just couldn't fathom out many of his decisions today.

An entertaining game and we more than deserved our point. Hopefully a springboard to move up the table. In the first half both sides lost goals to poor defending. Bigi's free kick for McHugh's goal was sublime. We looked good going forward and could have scored more. The midfield supplied the strikers with ammunition for once and we looked good. In defence however the midfield sat far too deep and gave Rangers too much space and time; especially to sling in crosses. The central defence and wing backs didn't cover themsleves in glory and looked a bit disorganised. We badly missed the pace and presence of Dunne and Kipre. The central defensive partnership of McHugh, Aldred and Hartley should only be an emergency stop gap. In the second half we dominated, sorry Sportsound, and took the game to Rangers, who defended shakily at times. We showed a never say die attitude against a big Rangers side who certainly did not allow us to bully them, as Gerrard promised pre match. Thanks to Bigi and co we showed more creativity and the equalising goal in the final seconds was no less than we deserved. Its ironic it was Hartley who scored. Bigi had decent game overall and was my MOTM but his corner kick taking was bit erratic and he needs muscle around him. Overall though our best performance of the season. Yes, there are still some weaknesses, especially in midfield and defence that need to be rectified but we are improving. Curtis Main is starting to show some form and the likes of Campbell and Johnson are gradually getting fitter, although both looked knackered today. Still not convinved of Chris Cadden at RWB though. Craig Thomson had an absolute shocker from start to finish and his officiating was riddled with inconsistency. As others have said Morelos and Lafferty ought to have been yellow carded for persistent diving; the Rangers player who launched the ball out of the ground after they scored should have joined them. A couple of their players lifted their hands and got off with it. Most ludicrous decision though was penalising Elliot Frear after he had skinned the defender, who tried to pull him back, and was racing into the box. I could go on but think thats sufficient. His performance shouldn't overshadow ours. Well done to the management and players. Good, but its work in progress. Still the team has spirit and character about it and that will be important.

I thought Bigi had a mixed game. As he did last week he looked great going forward but suspect in defence. However he did enough to earn my MOTM vote today.

It depends on whether the media want to highlight it or not. Its their call.

Really? Shocking performance and I don't know where to start.

Those Well fans who like their football tough and meaty will have relished Steven Gerrard's pre match comments. He's used terms and phrases like "warriors", "battles", and "Motherwell won't won't bully us this season". If he can bring those qualities from the EPL then we're in for a real encounter.

Entertain visiting journalists with champagne and smoked salmon sandwiches. That should do the trick.

It wasn't foul play, let alone serious foul play. Don't believe all you read in the media. As an aside how do we know the Compliance Officer is investigating? Has she issued a note of complaint? If not, has there been some kind of leak to the media or indeed has someone from the media raised the issue with her? All said and done though, Peter Hartley should not have made these comments.

I agree with most of what you say Weeyin, but not this. A foul is a foul and if Johnson is deliberately elbowed in the face I will most certainly be complaining. Its a ref's job to remain impartial but we all know they aren't when it comes to Celtic & Sevco. Bowman's elbow on the Rangers' player wasn't a foul, although it was reckless. Hartley's comment, inadvisable though it was, almost came as result of a loaded question, as Andy P says. As it is, Hartley has given Craig Thomson more leeway to make poor decisions, although he won't require it.

Absolutely. If we play both Gorrin & Bigi the defence will take a roasting. Of the two, Gorrin looks to be slightly more of an all rounder. I agree that Main & Johnson should start.

Like many others, I got a bit of a shock when it turned out that he hadn't retired after all. As far as I know our club made polite noises through the proper channels last season about his performances, unlike Celtic and Sevco who use their pet redtops to blast their complaints to all who all who want to hear and those who don't. This appointment in a relatively high profile game seems to me to be a clear and blunt GIRFUY message from the SFA to us to put us firmly in our place.

Final score 2-0. Maybe being pedantic but was this not our reserves playing today, although it was a young team. Do we still have an under 20s side?

I agree about Sammon but Main, although powerfully built, is "only" 5-10 or so, not especially tall for a striker.

All our strikers are a bit different but only time will tell if they're different enough. In the end it'll all be about the right combination. Bowman is an out and out target man. Johnson is more of a goalscorer in the Louis Moult or maybe even Dougie Arnott style. They're poles apart in terms of style. Main is somewhere in between. Sammon - I haven't quite got to grips with yet but he certainly isn't a target man despite his build - give him time.